Collections
by TinySprite
Summary: A third prompt table for Dragon Flyz, again done for fun. Stories are one-shots unless otherwise stated.
1. Defiant

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Defiant

(-)

Zap snorted as he stared up at the irritated human, not budging from his newly acquired prizes.

Ulrich growled down to the little defiant creature, "Give me back those data pads right now! Those are very important and are NOT for cubs to sit on!"

Zap made a point of resettling his weight on the warm data pads, a silent declaration that they were in fact perfect for sitting on. The old human gritted his teeth and brought out threat number one, "I'll get Summit if you don't move in three seconds!"

Zap just gave him a lazy blink and a yawn. Ulrich spared a second to mentally curse Gangryn yet again for mutating the cub and therefore making Zap more dangerous to move than the average cub. Stepping up to threat number two, Ulrich snapped, "Alright then, do I have to get your mama, Sky Fury?"

The little green cub seemed to hesitate but instead laid down fully on the pads. Feeling an inner freak out at the sounds of beeping and trying not to think of all the data the cub was accidentally changing or worse deleting, Ulrich yelled his third and final threat, "I'll get Riptor!"

_That _got Zap's attention, causing the young cub to give him a look that said 'You wouldn't dare'. Ulrich smirked at him, "I would dare. Just give me back those data pads and I'll forget this happened."

Zap hesitated, before getting off the devices with a grumble, trying to make it clear to Ulrich that the cub was only moving because Zap himself felt like it, not because of any threat. The head technician couldn't care less, snatching up the data pads as soon as he could in case Zap really felt like pushing his luck that day.

Giving the small green dragon one last look, Ulrich told him, "Nice doing business with ya. Now scram."

Zap snorted at him and instead vanished under Ulrich's desk, likely to curl up in the leg space for a nap. Ulrich didn't care about that, so long as Zap only napped and didn't go rooting around in his office again.

Grumbling to himself, the man quickly checked over the data pads to see what damage had been done. If the Council got worked up over the delays on the new mobile amber reactors, Ulrich knew exactly who to direct the blame to.


	2. Powder

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Powder

(-)

At an hour that could only be considered 'ungodly', Aaron was awake and trying to soothe his crying infant son. Z'neth had woken them up a few minutes earlier, but Aaron had taken over for Iranda, who honestly could use all the sleep she could get at the moment.

Technically so could Aaron, but he felt his wife deserved the rest more at the moment. As it was though, the man was tempted to wake her to see if she could puzzle out why Z'neth wouldn't calm down.

He'd already changed the baby's diaper (remembering the powder this time), tried to feed him a prepared bottle, offered him his favorite toys to no avail and at the moment was walking around the room while holding his tiny son against his chest. Forcing himself to stay standing and not sink into the chair in the nursery, Aaron groaned, "Please Z'neth, I'm begging you, go back to sleep!"

To his surprise, the baby did start to calm down, but began crying again once Aaron stopped talking. Putting two and two together in a surprisingly fast manner for the state his mind was in, Aaron began talking again, "I see. You just wanted someone to talk to you, is that it? Were you lonely Z'neth?"

As he went on, at some points literally talking nonsense, Z'neth stopped his cries and snuggled against him with a sudden release of breath. Taking a chance, Aaron stopped talking.

Z'neth stayed asleep, blissfully asleep. Placing the baby back into his crib gently, Aaron spared a minute to watch his son sleep before slipping carefully out of the room to go back to bed himself.

He'd have to remember to tell Iranda that new trick in the morning.


	3. Grateful

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Grateful

Note this is an AU based on possible alternatives presented by the episode The Portal.

\\\\\\\\ = scene change

(-)

Iranda grumbled to herself as she hunted through the starship _Explorer_ in search of her son.

While part of her would always grateful to have him here with her, right then she was annoyed with him. Peak had been dodging her for days, seemingly only returning to their quarters to eat, bathe and sleep.

Even though she tried to respect his privacy and give him needed distance (he was almost eighteen after all), this was just too much!

Worse, she couldn't even find him!

Peak wasn't in the gym, the games room, or any of the labs. None of his friends could point her to the right direction either, all of them seeming honestly confused themselves though one boy hinted that Pea had spoken about a surprise for Iranda herself.

She took a break in one of the ship's dining rooms, trying to figure that part out. What sort of surprise could Peak be planning that required such dedication and time? Iranda couldn't think of anything, except...

Sitting straight up, the woman gathered her skirts and ran to the teleporter room, hoping her suspicions weren't true.

Unfortunately, Peak really was there, buried up to his shoulders in the inner workings of one of the control panels with a mini flashlight held in his teeth as he worked on something inside the machine.

Irritated, she stormed over to him, snapping, "Peak! What do you think you're doing?!"

The teenager jumped and hissed around the flashlight as he quickly took his hands out of the machine to take it out of his mouth, "Mother! I didn't think you'd come here..."

Iranda frowned at her youngest, "What are you doing here? You know the teleporter is only one-way on the ship."

At that his nervousness went away and he smiled brightly, "That's just it Mother! I think I finally figured it out, how to make it work in reverse as well. We could go back to Old Earth!"

Though she knew she should still be mad at him, she couldn't deny her curiosity. Stepping closer to better observe, Iranda asked, "How? None of the ship's technicians could figure it out and they've been working on it for years."

Her son smiled and began to explain, happily losing himself in the details as he pointed out altered parts and rearranged wires. Iranda felt pride warm her chest, alongside hope at being able to go home. His teachers had always remarked on what an intelligent boy her son was, something she was sure he'd gotten from his father. When Peak's explanation wound down, she asked, "Would it be safe?"

He shrugged, "It should be...in theory."

Fixing something else inside the machine, he replaced its panel and got up to punch in a code, "If I did this right and my work holds true, we should see results with a test."

Iranda frowned again, "Test? What sort of test?"

Peak gave her a grin, "Calm down Mother, I was just going to set a box on the teleporter pad and send it to Old Earth. If that worked, then I was going to see if I couldn't bring it back. If that works as well, then we could move to other tests."

Iranda shook her head but smiled back, "Alright then. Just please be careful Peak."

He nodded, "I will be, Mother."

As he returned to the machines, Iranda glanced at the teleporter pad itself. Such a seemingly innocent room, yet it was the cause of so much heartache. If they really could return to Old Earth, to Airlandis...that would be beyond a dream come true.

Some weird noise came to her ears then, making her look at Peak just as he grabbed her and dragged both of them to the side. The machine he'd been working on was smoking and the panel's displays were flickering and a sinking feeling hit her stomach as she watched the first little tongue of flame leap up from the machine.

To her fear, she and Peak landed on the teleporter pad itself, right as a surge of energy hit it. Iranda felt the familiar pain of teleporting, biting back a scream as she and Peak vanished from the _Explorer_. Where they ended up, she didn't know and could only hope it'd be back on Old Earth.

\\\\\\\\\\\

Z'neth didn't know what it was, but Airlandis had detected an odd spike of energy from Old Earth. Dragonator One squad had been scrambled and sent down to investigate it, hopefully before Dread Wing got his clutches on it.

As they approached the weird valley and it's pyramid shaped building, Aaron's voice came over their communicators, "Z'neth! Turn around now! That area is restricted under the highest clearance!"

The eldest of the Dragon Flyz tried to argue, "But Father, that energy spike is a cause for concern! We need to find out what caused it."

The retaliation was quick, "That was a direct order Z'neth! Turn back now!"

Apex suddenly gasped and shouted, pointing downward into the valley, "Z'neth, look!"

Something ran out of the building, closely chased by a jumper and Z'neth honestly did a double-take at the realization that the something was apparently human. Yelling back into his communicator, "Order overridden by field authority! There's a person in danger down there!" Z'neth shut it off and yelled to Riptor, "Take us down Rip! We've got to help them!"

They landed just in time. The human had tripped and fallen, with the jumper eagerly living up to its name in anticipation of a meal. Riptor neatly caught the Old Earth creature in mid-jump in his jaws, giving it a rough shake before tossing it with a good amount of force to a far part of the valley.

Dismounting to help the human and see if he couldn't get any questions answered, Z'neth found himself having to chase them. For as soon as the jumper was gone, the newcomer was scrambling back to their feet and running back to the building. Whoever they were, they were fast.

The Dragon Fly nearly had to tackle them to get them to stop, finally grabbing onto the other right at the building's entry way. They immediately began to fight back, snapping, "Let me go! Mother's still in there and there might be more of those things!"

Keeping his grip on them, Z'neth snapped, "Calm down already! We're friends, not enemies!"

The person, no, the guy just growled and slammed his heel perfectly into Z'neth's shin, the unexpected pain forcing the dragonator to let go. Swearing, Z'neth hopped one on leg to his embarrassment as Apex, Summit and Dram finally landed their own dragons in the valley.

His teammates were at his side in seconds, with only Summit failing to hide his amused smile at Z'neth's hopping. Z'neth just pointed to the building, "Just get in there and find him!"

They didn't need to, as a shaky female voice suddenly called out, "Hello?"

All four of them froze at hearing it, turning almost as one to look at the doorway as a ghost of the past slowly came out of the pyramid building. There was a long stretch of stunned silence, which Apex broke, tearfully asking, "Mother? Is that really you?"

Iranda blinked, clearly trying to regain her mental grounding, "Apex?"

She looked around at them, naming them as her gaze settled on them, "Dram? Summit? _Z'neth?_"

Z'neth nodded at her question, having nearly forgotten that he'd still had brown hair the last time their mother had seen him. There was movement from the doorway and all four of them brought their windjammers up, Z'neth shouting, "Mother, move!"

But she didn't, instead shaking her head and calling out to the doorway, "Peak, come here! It's alright, I promise!"

The arm that had been reaching out to grab her retracted back into hiding. Slowly, a head poked out from one side of the doorway, the same person that Z'neth had helped, chased and then been kicked by. Now that he could actually see him though, Z'neth had to blink in surprise. Refraining from glancing at Summit (though he could see Apex doing just that out of the corner of his eye), Z'neth asked, "Peak? Almost sounds like he could be..."

He trailed off at Iranda's nodding, but before she could explain, there were the familiar roars of Old Earth creatures. Z'neth shook his head and pointed at the dragons, "We'll continue this family reunion later on Airlandis. Apex, you take Mother on Blaze Wind. I'll take Peak on Riptor."

His siblings nodded and Apex quickly lead their mother to Blaze Wind. Z'neth ignored the pain still in his leg to stride forward and grab hold of Peak's arm, dragging him out from hiding. The boy fought him a little, but stopped when they got to Riptor, choosing instead to stare at the dragon in fascination.

Quickly getting onto his dragon's saddle, Z'neth dragged Peak up to sit behind him. The boy yelped and grabbed onto him, his grip tightening as Riptor took off, closely followed by the other dragons. Thankfully his grip relaxed once they were out of the wind pits and above the clouds into the clear blue skies that existed above the warp winds.

As he'd been stubbornly quiet until then, Z'neth was a little surprised to hear the teen whisper, "Is...is that really the sky?"

Glancing over his shoulder at him, the sarcastic remark he'd been preparing died in his throat at the outright look of wonder on the boy's face. Choosing to instead give him a small smile, Z'neth remarked, "Yes and right there is Airlandis."

Pointing it out for him, Z had to smile a little more as Peak's eyes widened at the sight of the golden flying city. The teen leaned forward, whispering again, "So Mother's stories really were true..."

Z'neth frowned internally but he knew a single question to ask that would clear up a lot of things. Turning a little more to better look at the teen (and mother of dragons did he look like a younger Summit), Z'neth asked, "You're about eighteen, right?"

Still in wonder, the teen corrected him, "I'm seventeen actually..."

Suddenly frowning, he glared at Z'neth, "Why does it matter to you?"

Shaking his head, Z'neth turned away to sit right in the saddle again, "We'll find out soon. Hold on, Riptor's good about landings but they can be jarring to a first-timer."

Whatever Peak would have said in retaliation died in a yelp as Riptor dove at the main landing strip, pulling up neatly to ease into a perfect landing. The other dragons landed soon after, lining up alongside Riptor in a perfect row.

As he slid out of the saddle, Z'neth could already see their father charging towards them, no doubt angry beyond description, and trailed by both Ulrich and Councilman Joshua.

Looks like they'd be getting their answers soon.


	4. Decent

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Decent

Note, this is a direct sequel to Grateful and is set in the same AU.

(-)

The arrival of Iranda and Peak was causing quite a stir in Airlandis, specifically with the Council. Some of her story was unbelievable, like the fact she didn't know she was pregnant when she'd first teleported all that time ago, but Peak was undeniably Aaron's son.

It wasn't just in appearance but in intelligence too. After hearing him explain how he'd reworked the teleporter back on the _Explorer_, Ulrich had told the Council that he called 'dibs' on Peak for employment.

As it was currently though, the teen was quietly following his older siblings through the dragon sanctuary while their parents had some alone time. Apex had tried to keep a conversation going, but it fell flat since Peak didn't seem to want to talk to them.

Iranda had confided in them earlier that Peak was somewhat shy with new people, and that they just needed to give him a chance to open up to them. So far, it didn't seem to be working.

Summit had been the one to suggest showing their little brother the dragons, but the boy hadn't said anything though he did stare around in wide-eyed wonder. Several of the dragons gave the four various noises of welcome as the siblings passed their stalls, heading towards where Blaze Wind and Sky Fury were bedded down.

When they got there, Blaze Wind was there but Sky Fury was. She happily bumped Summit in the chest with her snout, eager for a scratch. The blonde laughed, "Hey girl, I missed you too. By the way, there's someone I want you to meet. This is Peak, my little brother!"

He turned to motion the younger blond forward, but Peak wasn't where they'd left him. Instead he'd drifted over to the stall next to Sky Fury's, making eye contact with the grumpy gray that nested there. All three of the older humans tensed up, with Z'neth moving to be in position to yank him back if necessary.

Wing Storm was not a friendly dragon and had routinely driven off dragonators through stubborn, outright rejection. It didn't help that Apex had never been able to 'speak' with Storm either, something about the setup of his mind naturally blocked her powers.

Peak didn't know any of that though, offering a hand out to the dragon as he softly spoke, "Hey there, I'm Peak. What's your name?"

They all shared a look, with even Sky Fury joining in, but the other four got a shock when Peak snickered, "Wing Storm? Really? Do you flap a lot when you fly?"

Storm snorted at him, but extended his neck to let Peak scratch the dragon's chin. Something about the way Peak kept moving his hands suggested he was being given instructions, as the teen spoke again, "Alright alright, I'm sorry. At least that's a good childhood nickname, compared to some of the ones I've had."

The teen looked up, mouth opening to say something to his siblings but closing it sharply at the looks he was getting from the three of them and even Sky Fury. Turning red, he questioned, "What?"

Z'neth pointed from Peak to Wing Storm and back, "Is he speaking to you?"

Peak nodded slowly, "Yeah. By the way, he wants to know if he could have lunch early. He says he didn't get a lot of breakfast this morning, something about a bratty young one stealing bites?"

Z'neth raised an eyebrow, remembering that incident. Wing Storm had apparently slept in, something riderless dragons tended to do as they had no exact schedule to follow, and Claw Fire (who had come to visit his father Blaze Wind) had decided to help himself to Storm's breakfast. The young dragon had eaten a good chunk of it too before Storm had woken up and chased him away, finishing what remained of his own meal in a bad temper.

Peak shouldn't have known about that, especially since he'd have only heard about it from a dragonator or a dragon caretaker. Mentally filing that away under 'sudden bond', Z'neth nodded, "While we can't let him have lunch early, I'll make sure they give him some extra to make up for what he missed at breakfast."

Wing Storm let out a soft huff, clearly pleased with both that and the fact that Peak was apparently scratching at the desired spot now. Seeing an opportunity, Summit offered, "If he doesn't mind it, I could show you how to give him a bath."

At the mention of the word, Wing Storm stood up and nearly knocked Peak over in his rush to get to the bathing area, again to the surprise of the other three humans. Wing Storm had never seemed to like baths before, yet now there he was, waiting impatiently for one and looking quite ready to just drag the humans over if they didn't hurry up.

Apex shared a look with Z'neth, but Summit took the chance to sling an arm around Peak's shoulders and lead him to the bathing area, "Well, lil bro, looks like that lesson is happening now."

Peak looked confused as they walked over, Z'neth just catching him saying, "Storm's saying that he's looking forward to finally having a decent bath, because they always miss his back the other times?"

Tuning out Summit's explanation, Z'neth instead shook his head and sighed. Well, this was a fresh bundle of headaches for him.


	5. Union

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Union

Note, this hints at events that took place during the Writer's Choice prompts of the second prompt table.

(-)

Dread Wing quietly mused to himself, his half-shut eyes barely taking in the sight of his cavernous throne room.

Normally, he enjoyed the sense of power, of control he had here. But...in that other world, his throne room there had been _grand_. Clean, repaired, and decorated in a manner that befitted his status as Lord of Old Earth.

There had even been the subtle hum of cleverly hidden amber generators! Amber generators, the very technology he'd spent years seeking and it had apparently just been handed over to his counterpart in exchange for a steady shipment of amber crystals.

In short, it wasn't a stretch to admit that Dread Wing was jealous of his other self. Everything he wanted, that one had gotten, all with seeming ease, especially in comparison to the battles Dread had had with the city of Airlandis.

It was almost enough to make him consider different tactics but...he'd been doing this for much too long. There was too much bad blood between Dread Wing and the inhabitants of Airlandis for any sort of union to form.

If the mutant was being completely honest with himself, he'd even admit to a feeling of regret as well. But the cards of fate had been dealt and he only had himself to blame for the subsequent mess.


	6. Cleansed

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Cleansed

Note, this is yet another AU.

'talk' = dragons talking to each other/through a bond

(-)

Even though he should have been expecting it, it was still a shock to Peak to wake up with streaks of gray in his hair. Plucking at a few of the recolored strands, he was relieved that it still felt like actual hair at least, not scaly or oddly thickened.

Letting out a sigh, the teen leaned closer to his bathroom mirror, trying to see if anything else had changed. His skin looked fine, as did his teeth, eyes and ears. Stepping back to check himself all over, Peak was further relieved that everything seemed perfectly fine, though his fingernails seemed to be a little bit sharper than he remembered.

Grumbling to himself at that (he remembered how quickly his siblings had gone through clothing when their nails had become claws), Peak suddenly remembered Wing Storm and groaned. Rushing through getting dressed and cleaned up for the morning, Peak shot out of his room, nearly running Apex down in the hallway as he did so.

Yelling an apology to her over his shoulder, the teen kept up his quick pace all the way to the dragon caves, expertly navigating all the twists and turns, only stopping when he was finally in front of the particular cavern that Wing Storm had claimed.

The young dragon blinked sleepily at the human from his nest of furs, asking 'Are you alright Peak?'

Peak smiled at him, pointing to his hair, "More or less yeah. Are you feeling okay Wing Storm?"

The gray's yellow eyes looked confused for a moment but he finally saw what the human was pointing out and sighed, 'Well that's finally a relief...I think. I feel fine by the way.'

Peak playfully stuck his tongue out at him, "Yeah yeah, I know. I just don't look forward to what happens from here on out."

The dragon sent him the sensation of agreement through their bond, not liking it either. Now that their bond had finally reached this level, both would have to take part in the rituals that cleansed the body of magical influence and returned it to the natural state...supposedly.

There was always a chance of failure and sometimes things just, well, stuck. Peak wouldn't mind the gray hair and he was certain Storm wouldn't mind the small patches of yellow on his hide that could just be made out in the dim lighting, but there were some things that wouldn't be as easy to live with.

Storm shifted in his nest, telling Peak, 'Well, look on the bright side. When you get down to basics, it's really just a complicated bath.'

Peak sighed, "I know, but it's an annoying complicated bath."

He shook his head and changed the subject, "So, since we're both up now, want to get an early breakfast?"

Wing Storm nodded and quickly stood, stretching his back a little as he did so, 'Yes please.'

Peak laughed, grabbed their gear from where it rested in the cavern and walked alongside his friend until they were out of the caverns, coming out of a cave onto one of the many cliffs that the dragons used for take offs and landings.

Storm patiently waited for Peak to saddle him and climb on, only moving when the human was securely seated. Even then, he asked, 'Are you ready?'

Peak replied through the bond, 'Whenever you are!'

Wing Storm shook himself a little, got a running start and took off easily, riding a current high into the air before finding another one to ride to the hunting grounds. A hunt early in the day was just the thing to wake him up and maybe if he was lucky, there'd be extra to take back and share with the other dragons.


	7. Go

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Picture. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Go

(-)

Z'neth eyed the odd looking little table that was the newest addition to their home, "Father, what is this?"

Aaron looked over to see what Z'neth meant, "Oh that? It's an antique game called Go. One of my friends at the University gave it to me as a late birthday gift. It's not an original of course but it is a very well made reproduction."

He drifted over, offering his oldest son a slim data book, "The rules are quite simple if you're interested in a game."

Z'neth activated the book and skimmed the rules, considering the offer. After a few minutes, he nodded and set the book aside, "Sure. How do you want to pick colors?"

It would be a good way to pass some time and it'd be nice to start a new game with his father, especially since they'd lost some pieces to the family chess set.


	8. Shame

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Shame

Note, this takes place in the alternate universe that was described in the final five series of prompts in the second prompt table.

(-)

Dread Wing couldn't help the smile that came to his face when he found Peak in his private quarters. He didn't even mind that the teen was sleeping, given that Dread's meeting had gone on much longer than either of them had thought it would.

Moving carefully and gently, Dread removed Peak's boots and shifted the teen into a more comfortable position on the bed, covering him with the blanket afterwards. He knew that it was rough on Airlandis at the moment, especially for the Dragon Flyz and their fellow dragonators.

For some reason, they just kept finding bum crystals that didn't last as long as the others, which forced them to go on extra amber runs. It was exhausting for both human and dragon, doubly so for the dragons. The fact that Peak had been able to come visit him at all was a miracle in itself.

Dread Wing had put the word out again to his minions to collect amber crystals, but landlocked amber was hard to find and there weren't many mutant dragons that could pick it up from the lava. Still, they could at least find fresh deposits of amber to tell Airlandis about, which would help more than nothing at all.

A sudden, odd thought made Dread feel a nearly overwhelming sense of shame and guilt. The other Dread Wing would have rejoiced at this misfortune, using it in another twisted scheme to drive the humans out of the sky and to their deaths on Old Earth.

Shoving that horrid thought away with a fearsome vengeance, Dread Wing reached out and carefully moved some hair off of Peak's face. The human made a soft noise and caught the mutant's hand in one of his own, letting out a happy sound as he did so, still sleeping.

The mutant Lord couldn't help a smile at that. A world without Peak by his side was not a world he wanted, especially not if it meant being obsessed over a mad delusion of total power and control.


	9. Objective

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Objective

(-)

Z'neth tried to keep his temper under control as he yelled instructions yet again to a new dragonator, "Let your dragon get the amber! He knows what to do so trust him to it! Now, again!"

The newbie brought his dragon around again to try once more at the practice amber set up in one of the clearings in the dragon sanctuary. It went well in the dive but when the dragon actually got close to the amber, the newbie panicked (again!) and yanked on the saddle bars, forcing his mount to pull up too high to actually get the crystal and subsequently overshoot it.

The leader of the Dragon Flyz groaned and put a hand over his eyes. The objective of this exercise was to help form trust between a dragon and a dragonator, as well as to let the dragonator get the 'feel' of their specific dragon's flying style.

A common problem with new dragonators was that they'd either make the dragon fly too low during a dive and risk injury from the lava or (as this one was doing) panic and pull their dragon up too soon, making their mount overshoot the amber and miss it.

Rubbing his eyes to in a sad attempt to get rid of the forming headache, Z'neth took a moment before removing his hand and yelling out, "Trust your dragon! You don't get second chances on Old Earth, now do it again!"

This was going to take hours at this rate...


	10. Strength

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Strength

(-)

Peak sighed to himself as he went to the dragon caretaker station in the dragon sanctuary. Spying someone he knew, the teenager called out, "Hey Dan!"

The man looked up from his digital clipboard, pausing in his task of counting bottles of something, "Hey Peak, what do you need?"

Peak motioned back to the sanctuary, "I need a bottle of stomach medicine. Storm's caught the bug that's been going around."

Wincing in sympathy, Dan asked, "What strength?"

The Dragon Fly thought on it, "Regular should do. Wing Storm doesn't seem that bad so some medicine and a day off should fix it."

The caretaker noted something on his clipboard before reaching in to the box to pull out one of the bottles, "You're in luck. We just got a fresh delivery of the medicine in from the labs. Just pour about half of this into his lunch, the rest into his dinner. If he needs more, just come by and ask for some."

Peak nodded and gave him a grateful smile as he accepted the bottle, "You're a lifesaver Dan!"

The caretaker just waved him off, returning to his task that Peak had interrupted. The teen left in a happy mood, knowing Wing Storm would be even more grateful for the medicine.


	11. Life

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot and OC is hers.

Prompt: Life

Note, this is set in the same AU as the second table prompts Hush, Engage and Believe.

(-)

In their new apartment, a young married couple was experiencing one of their first hurdles of new parenthood.

Peak rolled her eyes from her seat on the couch in their little living room, "No."

Horus gave her a pleading look, "Come on, darlin, what's wrong with Shu? He was the Egyptian god of wind and air!"

She shook her head, "It sounds too much like Shoe. My baby is not sharing a name with a piece of clothing."

Horus looked at the ceiling, trying to think. Finally he settled on another name and offered it, "What about Sobek? I always liked the sound of that one."

His wife sounded it out to herself, seeming to like it, "What's it mean?"

"He's the Egyptian god of crocodiles and alligators," Horus regretted saying that as soon as he did it, for Peak's eyes narrowed and she shook her head as she told him, "Nope."

But then she hesitated and gave him a bit of a concession, "Maybe if we ever have another kid. I'll think about it."

Her husband sighed and returned his attention to the book of names that he was holding. Being an only child, he didn't understand Peak's odd obsession with naming their own child. Oh, he knew names were important and all, but the way she said it, the name set everything about a person. Well, he could understand that part, remembering her unfortunate nickname from elementary school as well as his own from high school.

Also according to her, it also set the standard for any siblings that followed, which he could understand better. Just look at Peak's family for example.

But this book...it only had boring names in it. That was why he'd started trying to think out of the box with names following his own. Peak had already admitted there wasn't really anywhere to go with her name so she was willing to go with something new.

Only so far she'd rejected everything he'd put forward, with only Sobek getting even a consideration. Feeling more than a little fed up, Horus asked her, "So do you have any ideas?"

She blushed a little, "I like Kestrel."

He tried to remember what Kestrel meant and asked, "Boy or girl?"

Peak shrugged, picking up her cup of juice off of the small coffee table to take a sip from it, "It sounds like it could go for either, doesn't it?"

Horus waggled one hand, "More of a girl name to me. Let's think on that one."

She put her cup down and jotted her suggestion down on the pitifully short list of accepted baby names. Currently it had 'Kestrel?' with 'Sobek?' being the only other one. He didn't feel good about those question marks. Sighing to himself, Horus straightened up from where he'd been leaning against the wall and moved to sit next to his wife, setting the book down on the coffee table as he did so.

Peak immediately cuddled into him, which he of course accepted. One of his hands drifted down to rest on her rounded abdomen. The slight movements of the tiny life inside her brought a stupid smile to his face, which did improve his mood a little.

He suddenly thought of something, "Hey, what about birds?"

She looked up at him, "What about them?"

Horus pointed to himself, "Well, my namesake is the god of falcons as well as war and the sky. Why not think of birds?"

Peak hummed to herself, "All I can really think of are girl names though."

"Come on, darlin, there's gotta be something."

Suddenly she looked at him from the corner of her eye, blushing a bit, "What about Merlin?"

He repeated the name, "Merlin?"

The blonde teen nodded, "Yeah, it's a kind of falcon."

Horus repeated the name again to himself, nodding slowly, "Yeah, I like that one. Put it down."

She happily did so, "Well, now we've got the boy name sorted out. What about for a girl?"

Horus racked his brain for girl names that could come from birds, "Robin?"

Peak shook her head, "Too overdone."

He tried again, "Wren?"

"Sounds more like a boy's name than a girl's."

Horus dug deeper into his memory, trying to bring to mind anything, "Dove?"

Peak tapped her lips with the notepad stylus, "That could work..."

She wrote it down with a question mark next to it and prompted her husband, "Any other suggestions?"

Horus shook his head, "I never really was good with nature stuff. How about you?"

Peak thought on it, "Kiwi?"

He frowned, "Isn't that a kind of fruit?"

Peak giggled, "No, it's a type of flightless bird, trust me."

Smiling a little at her, he shook his head again, "Nah. Next?"

She offered, "Well, there's Sora."

He looked at her, "Sora?"

She clarified, "It's a waterbird."

Horus shook his head, yet again, "Let's just stick with Dove. It's a nice name."

Peak giggled again and agreed with him, using the stylus to erase the question mark after the mentioned name and circled it.

With a sigh, she pressed into him, tucking the stylus back into its convenient holder, "With that, names are decided. Now we just need to finish setting up the nursery."

Horus hid a shudder and just mumbled agreement to his wife. He wasn't going to tell her that he wasn't going near the aforementioned room, not without his sister-in-law's express approval. Apex had made that _very_ clear to him and he wasn't about to go against her just yet.

But then again, his wife could be scarier when she was mad...


	12. Contempt

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is mine.

Prompt: Contempt

Note, this is a modern day AU of mine and the characters aren't acting like their normal selves.

Part 1 of 3

(-)

Patrick sat on his kitchen floor, dully staring at the letter in his hands.

Honestly, it wasn't a surprise. He should have been expecting this any day now, given the circumstances.

He didn't seem to hear the door open and shut, or the heavy footsteps as someone walked around the apartment, calling out, "Pat? Everything okay? You didn't answer your phone when I called...Patrick?"

The voice stopped for a minute. The nineteen year-old felt a gentle hand grab his shoulder as his boyfriend suddenly came into sight next to him. The blond wondered why he was so blurry though. Darius was anything but blurry, physically and emotionally.

Worry immediately came onto the older man's face, "Love, what happened?"

Patrick hadn't realized he'd been crying until Darius's other hand reached up to clear away some tears from his face. The blond didn't say but offered him the letter instead. Brown eyes looked at the letter, clearly skimming over its tiny official print as a deepening frown formed on his face.

Moving to sit next to Pat, the larger man shifted his arms to hold the teenager, telling him, "You don't have to go, to either of those. You owe them much less than they own you."

Patrick shook his head, finally speaking, though it came out as a croak, "I have to go. He was my father and this is my only chance to say goodbye."

Still frowning, Darius told him, "Then I'm going with you. I won't have you face that pit of vipers alone."

The teen didn't protest, silently glad of the support as he pressed into the hug and began to silently cry again.

The letter announcing both the date of his father's funeral and that of the will reading fell to the floor as he let go of it to hug Darius back.

Internally, Patrick was deeply ashamed to even think that he hadn't wanted to go to either. He'd had enough of the rejection and contempt of his family to last well beyond a single lifetime but...

It was his father's funeral. How could he not go? Even if he was certain that the will held nothing for himself, the teen felt that he could at least get closure from the funeral. It would be both better and worse if Darius went with him, but he didn't want to face his siblings alone, not anymore.

Besides, this way he could properly say goodbye to them too. He hadn't gotten the chance to do so when he'd left the house two years back after an early graduation from high school.

They hadn't made an effort that whole time to contact him except for Dan, who called once to let Patrick know their father was sick. The family lawyer had sent him the letter regarding the funeral and the will.

As his thoughts spiraled further into a depressing state, Darius kept on hugging him, even rubbing the younger man's back in an attempt to soothe him. When Patrick finally cried himself out and actually fell asleep against him, Darius easily rearranged his grip to pick the teen up as he also stood in one easy motion.

The older man carried his boyfriend to their bedroom, intent on letting Pat sleep for now. He knew how much the familial rejection hurt the boy and as such, Darius silently swore to himself that he'd be civil and not start anything no matter what, despite the fact that he was dying to punch one of Pat's brothers in the face.

However, if any of _them_ started something, that was another story. After all, finishing a fight was much different than starting one.


	13. Wrong

**Disclaimer:**TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Wrong

Note, this takes place in a modern day AU and the characters will not act like their usual selves.

Part 2 of 3

(-)

A couple of days and a plane ride later, the pair of them were sitting in the lawyer's surprisingly cold office, waiting for the reading of the will to begin.

The funeral had been the day before and had gone well. With the large number of people that attended, it had been very easy for Patrick to blend into the background, even getting the chance to place some flowers on his mother's grave as well as on his father's.

But here, in the office, he didn't have that luxury. Darius held his hand for support and Pat clutched back like the lifeline it was. Thankfully there were enough chairs for everyone and the pair of them had selected seats in a more secluded corner of the office.

Finally, the family lawyer, Joshua Richter, began to read out the will. It was mostly general stuff, like who the main house went to, who got the lake house, who got the antique gun collection, etc. Patrick only half-listened to most of it as he honestly didn't expect to get much if anything at all. Father had never really shown any affection for him nor paid much attention except for some fundamentals.

So he was quite surprised when Joshua said, "And for my youngest son Patrick, the contents of this box are solely his and his alone."

Looking up, the teenager saw Joshua giving him an expectant look, one hand holding the will and the other resting on a box on his desk. Patrick let go of Darius' hand long enough to stand up and walk over to accept it and a small key from Joshua, mumbling a soft 'thank you' before retreating back to his boyfriend.

The box was medium sized and it had a decent weight to it. Even though he was curious about what it could hold, Pat decided to wait until he and Darius were back in their hotel room to open it.

The rest of the reading passed without incident and Patrick was glad to get away once it was over. Darius wrapped an arm around his shoulders as they left the legal office, a comfort the teen was glad for.

No one stopped them, though one of the secretaries gave the pair an odd look on their way out, but they were used to it. Darius got the door for him on their rented car and drove them back to their hotel.

They got to their room in silence. Both men shed their suit jackets, hanging the pieces of clothing up in the room's tiny closet. Darius waited until Pat set the box down on the room's table before giving him a tight hug, which was immediately returned.

Rubbing his sweetheart's back, the older man said, "I'm going to change and get us some food. Anything you'd like?"

Pat shook his head against Darius' shoulder, mumbling, "Just surprise me."

The taller man made an noise of acceptance in his throat. He held the hug for a few more minutes before finally letting go to change out of his suit and dress shoes into a t-shirt, jeans and boots. He gave Pat a quick kiss before he left, taking one of their room's key cards with him.

The teen watched him leave, waiting a few minutes in silence before making himself change as well into more comfortable clothes. Both suits were hung up in the tiny closet and he dug his change of clothes out of his suit case, not bothering with socks and shoes since he wasn't leaving the room.

He knew his boyfriend hadn't just left to get food, but to also give him some privacy. Grateful for that, Patrick sat at the table and hesitantly used the key to unlock the box. Lifting the lid, he was surprised to see that it contained a large bundle of envelopes separated into two stacks, a small wooden keepsake box, and below all that, a thin packet.

Hesitating again, he decided to look at the envelopes first. To his surprise, the top one of the first stack was not only addressed to him, but to his current address. So was the one below that, and the one below that, but the fourth envelope was addressed to his previous address.

Looking through all of them, there were several envelopes actually addressed to every place he'd lived since he'd left home. For when he'd been home, those had to be the envelopes that just had his first name on them.

Blinking a fresh rush of tears back, Patrick picked up the most current envelope and opened it, revealing a neatly folded sheet of paper inside. It was an actual, handwritten letter from his father and Pat actually recognized the neat, slightly slanted writing as his father's own.

Holding it in hands that only shook slightly, he began to read,

_'Patrick,_

_ You've grown and accomplished so much these last nineteen years and I couldn't be more proud of you. I just wish I'd realized that sooner. I know now that I was wrong to treat you like I did and there are no excuses for it._

_ Your mother, my dear Irene, she'd never forgive me if she knew. As I fear this might be my last letter to you, I can only regret all the time wasted because of a petty grudge that you were innocent of. I can only hope that you'll forgive me over time._

_ Enclosed in this box are all the letters I've written you, your mother's favorite keepsake box and all the needed legal documents for her cabin. Irene considered it her home away from home and I hope it can be of use to you. I've had it and the property its on kept in excellent condition over the years, so there shouldn't be any problems._

_ I pray that one day you can forgive this foolish old man._

_ Your father, _

_ Aaron'_

Patrick set the letter down with numb hands and carefully took the keepsake box out of the bigger box. It was a plain brown one, with a simple floral design carved into the top. Swallowing a sudden lump in his throat, Pat opened it.

Right on top was a picture of a pretty strawberry blonde woman in an indigo dress, smiling beautifully at the camera. The teen picked it up with trembling fingers, knowing at once that this was his mother despite having never seen a picture of her before. Amy had mentioned the dress once and there were similarities in the woman's face that matched his sister's and a bit of his own to suggest that she was family.

Tearing his gaze from the unframed picture, he looked into the keepsake box again. There was a sapphire drop necklace, a couple of simple silver rings, and a small, slender book underneath it all. Carefully digging it out, he nearly dropped it when he saw the title.

It was a baby diary, with his name on the necessary line on the inside cover. Reminding himself to breath, he carefully flipped through it, reading the details that were written in a very pretty, tiny handwriting. There were only ten pages, and of course only the first nine were filled.

The tenth page was reserved for when he was born, with an accompanying slot on the inside of the back cover for his baby photo. It was of course empty. Dropping the book to the table, Patrick began to sob again.

He couldn't decide which was more cruel, the never sent letters from his father or the (probably) unintended reminder that Patrick had killed his own mother. Well, the complications resulting from his birth had been what actually took his mother away, but in the end, it meant the same thing, didn't it?

Forcing everything out of his head, he forced himself to calm enough to reach back into the larger box and pull out the thin packet. It held some official looking papers that transferred a cabin and some land to his name, as well as a pair of keys that had to be for the cabin itself.

Patrick made a note to talk to Joshua about all of this later. He hated himself for it but there was a sudden fear that one of his siblings would try and take all of this from him.

Moving from the table, he flopped onto the room's single bed and buried his face into a pillow, letting the sobs come back. This...this was just too much for him right now.

When Darius finally returned with a large bag of fast food from a burger joint they both liked, it was to the sight of his sweetheart having cried himself to sleep on the bed. The older man put the food down on the dresser and laid down next to Pat, pulling the teen close to him to give him some silent comfort.

They could always heat the food back up later. Right now, his love needed rest and comfort, both of which Darius was more than willing to cater too. Everything else could be sorted out later.


	14. Sweeten

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Sweeten

Note, this happens in a modern day AU and the characters will not act like their usual shelves.

Part 3 of 3

(-)

Months passed and Patrick seemed to move on.

Though, Darius had to admit, that could have also been due to the art exhibition the teen had been invited to that was being held by Pat's school.

His love had been over the moon at the news and had buried himself in work, trying to get some new pieces up in time for the exhibition as well as get caught up on the commission pieces that were due.

Besides his part-time job, Patrick made most of his money from his artwork so this event was big for him. Darius felt that he could understand and tried to be out of the way for the most part, except for the times he needed to literally drag his sweetheart away from the easel to make sure Pat ate or slept.

Finally, finally the day came. His paintings and sketches were packed up and sent to the school for display, with Darius pinning him down the night before to make sure Pat got a full eight hours of sleep.

Fidgeting in his suit, the teen gripped his boyfriend's hand tightly as they entered the building that had been rented for the exhibition. Right inside the entrance-way, a smiling woman had offered them both a half-mask to put on. At their questioning looks, she explained that it was part of the theme for the exhibition, a fun little twist that had been added last minute.

Pat and Darius exchanged looks and shrugged together, accepting their masks and putting them on. The plain black masks covered the upper half of the face and had the likely unintended result of making many of the men look like second-hand vigilantes.

Walking around the exhibition, the pair eventually came to Pat's own art works. The teen specialized in mythological pieces, dragons in particular. Darius read the name slot and raised an eyebrow, " 'Done by our student, Peak'? "

Patrick reddened a little, "What? They let us put in pseudonyms. I like it and I want my artwork to be my own."

Darius nodded, catching all the meaning behind that last sentence that another person wouldn't. Overhearing a discussion regarding some of the pieces in the display next to his love's own, the taller man asked, "Do they let you sell the works?"

Patrick nodded, "Only our own and the buyer has to fill out a form first. You can get the forms from the table back at the entrance. After the exhibition, we're given the forms for approval and I think the school takes care of the rest. The school also gets a small cut of the sale, which helps cover the exhibition costs."

His boyfriend made an understanding noise in his throat, eyes watching the crowds. Because of the masks, he couldn't be exactly certain, but he did think that he'd seen a familiar white-haired man next to an also familiar red-haired woman a few feet away.

Giving a gentle pull to their joined hands, Darius easily led Patrick away, "So, where's the refreshment table?"

He gave a silent swear that he would _ruin_ anyone who came to ruin his love's important night.

As the hours passed and the exhibition began to wind down, Darius was pleased that the event had gone smoothly. Patrick was the happiest he'd seen the teen in months, which in turn made Darius himself happy as well.

After excusing himself for the bathroom, the older man came back to the sight of Pat holding a few sheets of paper, staring at them dumbstruck. A worried man that had to be a teacher was trying to talk to him, but Patrick ignored him when he saw Darius.

Once his boyfriend was close enough, the blond handed over the papers for him to see. Frowning, the dark-haired man glanced through them. The papers seemed normal enough, each one for the purchase of a specific painting, all of which were from Pat's center pieces. The names were odd though.

A 'Z'neth' wanted the Riptor painting, a 'Summit' wanted the Sky Fury one, an 'Apex' wanted the Blaze Wind piece and finally, a 'Dram' wanted the one of Shockfire. Mentally running the names through an internal thesaurus and comparing it to some quick family history, Darius put two and two together and looked up at Pat.

Going from the look on the teen's face, he'd already figured it out for himself. Offering the papers back, he quietly asked Pat, "What are you going to do?"

Hesitating, the teen turned and nodded to his teacher, handing the papers back to the other man, "Authorized on all of them."

The teacher beamed at him, "Congratulations! It's not often that works get sold in a student exhibition. We're all very proud of you."

Pat just nodded again, moving to press against Darius' side for comfort, "Thank you sir."

The teacher smiled at him again and left quickly, clearly to finalize the sales.

Darius wrapped an arm around the teen, giving him a slight squeeze. Patrick whispered to him, "Can we go home now? I...I'm really tired."

Making an agreeable sound in his throat, Darius lead Patrick out of the building, trying to figure out the angle here. What did the boy's siblings want? Was this some new method of torment or were they honestly trying to make amends?

If it was the first, Darius would deal with them swiftly.

If it was the second...then those brats had a lot of work to do if they ever hoped to sweeten their relationship with Patrick.


	15. Hands

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot and OC's are hers.

Prompt: Hands

Note, this is set in the same AU as Life.

(-)

Horus was on a level of freaking out that somehow nullified itself to give the false appearance that he was calm. In actuality, he was the furtherest from calm that a guy could possibly be without snapping and getting arrested.

But if he did snap, his wife was going to kill him. Kill him and revive him just to kill him again, since today was the day of their child's birth.

Taking a deep breath a little too quickly and letting out just a bit too sharply, Horus kept on pacing, trying to work off some of his nervous energy. Their child had been overdue for a couple days now and the doctor had been talking about inducing labor but suddenly Peak had actually gone into labor that morning.

That had been only an hour ago and she was progressing fast.

Ignoring the nurse's glare, Horus dug his personal communicator out of his pocket to look at it again. After getting Peak to Medical, the first thing he'd done (after getting thrown out of the delivery room for making the doctors nervous) was contact her family. Unfortunately they were all busy but Aaron had promised to be there as soon as the Council meeting ended.

As for her siblings, they were on a long distance amber run, so Horus couldn't even get in touch with them but Aaron had said that he'd pass the message to Sky Watch so they'd know to come to Medical as soon as they were in.

Just as he was putting it away, a nurse came to the waiting room, "Is there a Horus here?"

The redhead jerked around to stare at her, "Yes?"

She motioned for him to follow and he did, straight to the room where Peak was. His wife looked up at him, exhaustion clear in every part of her but there was a brilliant smile on her face, "Hey."

Horus quickly went to her side, "Hey darlin..."

Whatever he'd meant to say next trailed off at the sight of the wrapped bundle cradled against her chest. Peak smiled up at him, moving to offer him the baby, "Say hello to Merlin."

He slowly accepted his tiny newborn son with trembling hands. The nurse was at his side in seconds to show him how to properly hold the baby. As for Merlin himself, the tiny guy just snorted and snuggled against his father, clearly content to sleep at the moment.

He sunk into a conveniently placed chair and kept on staring. Finally he muttered, "He's so small..."

Peak gave a weak laugh, "I know."

Horus looked up at her again, a smile growing on his face, "I'm a dad."

She nodded, "And I'm a mom now."

Her husband returned his attention to the baby, still dumbstruck. Peak gave a little giggle and settled back into the hospital bed. Her boys would be fine while she took a little nap.


	16. Strangle

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Strangle

(-)

Z'neth swore as he strode to the dragon sanctuary.

Another idiot newbie had done something they shouldn't have and now were paying the price. But a couple weeks in Medical was kinder than anything Z'neth himself would have done, if he could get away with it.

Fighting the urge to strangle someone, Z'neth caught sight of Zarkan and called him over, wanting to be sure of what happened. He'd gotten copies of the incident report, but it was different to hear it from someone who'd actually been there.

Somehow, someway, he was going to make some kind of intelligence test part of the entrance exams for the dragonator corps.


	17. Lullaby

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Lullaby

(-)

Iranda didn't know how to sing, but she knew how to play the piano.

Whenever her small children got fussy, she would take them to the music room and play her favorite score for them. It rarely failed her and would almost always send her children to a peaceful sleep.

It even worked for Dram, to her surprise.

So when Iranda discovered that she was pregnant for the fourth time, she already knew what the lullaby for her newborn would be.


	18. Untouchable

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Untouchable

Note, this is set in the same AU as Grateful and Decent.

(-)

Zarkan was not having a good day.

Titan was sick and off the duty roster for at least a week. There weren't any spare dragons he could borrow either, which meant he was stuck on duty with the city guard until Titan was healthy again.

So he wasn't in the best of moods when the kid approached him, asking, "Hey Zarkan, could I bother you for a favor?"

Biting his tongue against the rude remark he wanted to make, Zarkan instead crossed his arms over his chest and said, "Yeah?"

Peak shifted in place, looking a little unsure of himself before finally saying, "Could you fly Storm for me?"

Zarkan blinked, clearly caught off guard, "Huh?"

Peak explained, "I'm not cleared for long distance flights yet but the caretakers told me that Wing Storm needs more exercise than the practice flights give him. So I was wondering if you couldn't fly with Storm for amber runs and such."

Zarkan blinked again, trying to get his mind in order. He'd nearly forgotten about the gray dragon, but that was easy to do when said dragon had spent years making itself untouchable. Until Peak had come along and bonded with Wing Storm, no one knew what they were going to do with him.

Remembering past events with unfortunate dragonators, Zarkan had to ask, "Is Wing Storm alright with this?"

Peak nodded, "I explained everything to him and he's willing to cooperate so long as you do."

Zarkan thought it over again. He'd still be able to fly, Titan could get his needed rest and best of all, no time on city guard yet! Nodding slowly, the older dragonator agreed, "Alright, I'll do it."

Peak smiled at him, "Thanks Zarkan! I'll let Z'neth know about it, so check in later with him too. Dragonator One squad's due for an amber run in about two hours and he wants Stormy with them so he can get used to flying with other dragons."

Zarkan nodded again, "Got it, thanks Peak."

The teen smiled again, "Nah, thank you Zarkan! Sorry but I've gotta run. I've got wind jammer lessons in a few minutes."

With that said, the teen left, humming a happy tune. Zarkan shook his head after him, feeling his mood lighten for the first time that day.

This was going to be interesting.


	19. Whispered

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Whispered

(-)

Z'neth woke up slowly, hissing in pain at the headache pounding at his temples.

Keeping his eyes slitted to keep the painful light out, he could just make out that he was in a room in Medical. Closing his eyes again, he tried to remember how he'd gotten there.

They'd been on an emergency amber run...Fryte had shown up with some dark dramen...pain in his shoulder...

Remembering that part made a sharp spike of pain shoot through his back, causing Z'neth to hiss again, sharper this time.

There was the sound of movement at his side, then a voice whispered, "Z? You awake?"

The man opened his eyes again, craning his head to see who it was. An exhausted looking Peak smiled at him, "You're awake! One sec."

He hit the button to call the nurse, explaining, "They wanted to know when you woke up. We all got a bad scare this time."

Z'neth frowned and tried to talk only to cough harshly instead. Peak quickly helped him sit up to give him some water, telling his brother, "Easy there Big Z!"

The white-haired man gratefully took a couple sips of cool water and tried again to ask what happened, managing to get out, "Wha-"

Peak shook his head, "Try not to talk, they had to intubate you earlier. The gremwings, we don't know what's going on but some of them had poison in their saliva. Summit's in the room right across the hall, with Apex watching him."

Z'neth frowned, sitting back as he made a motion for Peak to continue. The teen did so, "Father was able to find an antidote to it but it was cutting it close. Neither you or Summit are on the roster for a while and we're going to have to find something to do about those gremwings."

The older man nodded, frowning to himself now as he thought on that problem. Had the gremwings naturally evolved to that? Was it some new food they were eating or was it the most likely route, that Gangryn had mutated them to such a purpose?

His musings were interrupted when a nurse came in to check on him. Trying to field her questions by shaking his head 'yes' or 'no', Z'neth put the problem on a mental back burner for now. He needed more information first, which he could get when Father came to visit.

Until then, Z'neth knew he needed to focus on getting better.


	20. Prayers

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Prayers

(-)

To say Airlandis had religion, would be a lie.

But it would also be a lie to say that the floating city didn't.

For one, there were the professors of Ancient Religions in the University of course, each of them specializing in a specific religion or in some cases, certain interpretations of said religion.

For another, there actually were still practitioners of the old religions in the city, though mostly only in small pockets.

In general, the populace of Airlandis just went on with their lives, content in the knowledge that the flying city was out of reach of most dangers and that the dragonators would keep them safe from the few that could.

If anything, it were the dragonators themselves and the amber reactor technicians who were surprisingly close to the FIST Fighters in a certain aspect. Most of them offered prayers to the amber, though typically it was along the lines of 'please last longer than a few hours' or 'let the dragonators find a large cache'.

For the dragonators, it could be said that the dragons were their religion. They spent so much time with their mounts, that it was impossible to not think of them as family, best friend and confidante all in one. Between all the patrol flights, amber runs, training, and general care-taking, it wasn't uncommon for a dragonator to be closer to their dragon than to other humans (at least regarding ones outside of their team and the dragonator corps in general).

So in this respect, Airlandis had adapted and changed, as it had in so many others.


	21. Obvious

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Obvious

(-)

It was an obvious trap.

Z'neth had Riptor do another sweep by the large clutch of amber crystals. The clutch was on a tiny island in the middle of a lava river, which wasn't an unusual location for amber crystals. What was unusual was the size of it. There had to be at least thirty crystals down there!

Normally they'd only find clutches of maybe five crystals, sometimes up to ten of them.

The only other time they'd found so many, Dread Wing and Gangryn had left them a 'present' of amber crystals infected with the Crystal Fire virus.

His siblings and their dragons hovered nearby, just as apprehensive as he was. Z'neth frowned to himself, trying to decide what to do.

There was the possibility that this was just a rare giant clutch, but he didn't want to press his luck on that. The Dragon Fly looked around, trying to find an clear area as an idea formed in his mind. Spying a cliff that would suit his purpose, Z'neth activated the communicator in his saddle horn, speaking to the whole team, "Alright Flyz, this looks like it could be too good to be true. Apex, Peak, there's a cliff about forty yards to the right. Land there and get ready to start scanning while Summit and I ferry the amber up there. If they all check out, then I'll alert Sky Watch to send out some other teams here. Any crystals that aren't cleared, we toss back into the lava. Understood?"

There was a chorus of confirmations before Z'neth cut the communication. Directing Riptor back to the island, he held only long enough to make sure his sister and youngest brother were making their way to the cliff before letting his dragon dive down to make the first scoop.

Part of him hoped all the crystals cleared. With this amount, Airlandis would have a sizable store for a while, which would take some stress off of the dragonators for as long as it held.


	22. Rhythm

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Rhythm

(-)

If pressed to talk about it, Apex would admit that there was a kind of natural rhythm to a dragon's mind.

They had their basic needs and wants, just like a human, but they also had a craving for something she could only think of as 'mental comfort'. They did this by projecting an odd natural mental 'hum' at all times, even when they were sleeping.

It was special to each dragon and she'd gotten good at identifying them by it. The 'hum' seemed to help the dragons locate each other and communicate without words, like a secondary empathy bond of sorts. It also worked faster than the primary empathy bond between dragons. This meant a dragon could use their own 'hum' to warn the rest of danger instead of crying out or sending warnings through the primary bond.

Since even Zap projected one, Apex could only conclude that the 'hum' was natural and not something a dragon learned as they grew up.

She'd tried to project a general 'hum' herself once, but all that had gotten her were strange looks from the dragons and hours of Blaze Wind asking if she felt alright.

Apex hadn't tried since, but she kept tabs on the 'hums' as much as she could. It was easier to pick up than it was for her to enter a dragon's mind, which meant she could use it to quickly identify a dragon's emotional and mental condition though for specifics she'd still need to access their mind.

In the end though, it was a very handy tool to have.


	23. Afterlife

**Disclaimer:**TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Afterlife

Note, this takes place during episode one Dragon Dawn.

(-)

As Peak dangled over the lava river, his only safety line being a long piece of vine that he was really doubting the strength of, he couldn't help but to think on something Dread Wing had said just a minute before he had Nocturna knock the teen off the cliff.

Was there really an afterlife?

Though he didn't doubt his siblings would rescue him, a tiny seed of doubt in his mind was tentatively wondering if there were dragons on the other side. He knew that the dragons were hurt worse by the severing of a bond than the humans were. Peak had even heard of a couple incidents where a dragon would commit suicide by diving into the warp winds after the death of their human rider.

Those were rare occurrences though and he'd never seen one happen himself, only heard about them. Still, he found himself hoping that Wing Storm would be okay if...well, if Peak didn't make out of this.

If he could just get his arms free, then he could climb up the rope to the cliff itself and find a ledge he could take shelter on. From there, he could free his legs and possibly make an escape or at least find a safer spot to wait out for a rescue.

Trying to struggle free of the rope tying his wrists together behind his back, Peak heard a horrifying noise. Something had growled below him and it sounded _big_.

Glancing at the lava river, he paled at the sight of ripples in the dangerous substance and quickly renewed his struggles. Not that he doubted his family, but uh, this was a situation he might have to get himself out of.

Death by lava beast was only slightly better than death by torture though, even if he couldn't actually justify how.


	24. Hidden

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Hidden

(-)

Fryte growled as he prowled Warnado, his typically delicate temper already dangerously frayed.

Another failed counterattack had put him yet again in his Lord's bad graces. If only he could capture a hated Dragon Fly! That would certainly put him back in his master's good graces but the cursed humans were difficult to get a hold of.

Glaring at a bit of rubble as if his redemption was hidden behind it, Fryte raised his lava cannon and shot it. He felt slightly better at the destruction, but not by much.

One way or another, Fryte knew he'd have to prove himself capable to Dread Wing. But how? Thwarting an amber sweep was a good way, as was leading a successful raid on Airlandis. Catching a Dragon Fly to give to Dread was even better.

Fixated on that last idea, he began to think of a plan that would make capture of one of those humans possible. It would take time to put into place but it would be worth it.


	25. Parade

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Parade

Note, this is set in the same AU as Life and Hands.

(-)

Peak was nervous and it showed clearly. Diving her hands back into the diaper bag, she pointed out, "And here's the extra diapers and there's his spare blanket and -"

Aaron chuckled, "Peak, my dear, you've shown me where everything is four times now. I'm quite certain I know where to find anything if I need them."

His youngest daughter smiled at him, "Sorry Father. I guess my nerves are getting to me."

She turned her gaze to her tiny son, snoozing in his grandfather's hold and reached out to softly stroke his forehead, "I can't believe Merlin's already so big."

Her father nodded, "Babies grow fast, Peak, especially in their first year."

She sighed, "That's what the parenting class kept telling us. Thank you again so much for babysitting him today Father. It really means a lot."

Today was her first day back on her job as a dragonator, complete with a scheduled amber run. When he'd found out, Aaron had offered to look after Merlin for the day, which Peak and Horus had accepted gratefully. Peak shifted her shoulders in her uniform that didn't quite fit right anymore and pointed back into the bag one last time, "If he gets too fussy, just put on the Animal Friends Parade soundtrack. Merlin always calms down when it plays."

Aaron raised an eyebrow at the title but didn't say anything about it, remembering some of the baby toys and items his own children had had growing up. Suddenly realizing something, he asked, "Where's his toy?"

Peak looked confused, then horrified as she realized what he meant. Digging desperately back into the bag, she soon triumphantly held up a stuffed gray dragon doll and gave it to her father, "Thanks for reminding me. I almost thought I'd left that at home."

Aaron chuckled again as he accepted the toy, "Alright, with this I believe everything is in order. Have a good day at work Peak."

She smiled at him and gave her father a quick hug from the side, being very careful of Merlin, "Thanks Father. I'll see you both this afternoon."

With that, the teen left the apartment, forcing herself not to look back. She knew that if she did, she'd find some other reason to stay, no matter how trivial and she was already pushing it close to being late as it was.


	26. Touch

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Touch

/talk/ = talking through a bond

(-)

Peak took a deep breath of the bitingly cold air, ignoring the sting of it on his face as Wing Storm flew above Airlandis in a lazy circle.

This was just an exercise flight, to help keep Storm in shape for his duties as well as to help Peak stay in tune with his dragon. Pulling on the saddle bars just so, Peak guided Storm into a wide turn, opening his mind to his dragon as he did so.

They chatted about inane things, like Peak's classes at school or Wing Storm babysitting Zap for the second time that week so Sky Fury could nap peacefully. As they talked, Peak had to wonder yet again why the other dragonators his age couldn't understand their dragons like how he and Wing Storm understood each other.

It felt like they were practically brothers, their bond was so close. So why couldn't the others of his age group form a similar bond? It didn't have to be on the level of his and Storm's but something deeper than basic empathy would have been nice.

There was a soft laugh in his mind, followed by Storm's soft voice, /They don't have the patience for it. They want the rewards for too little work, which is why most of them wind up on city guard duty until their pride cools, if they're not kicked out of the corps entirely./

Peak fought the urge to sneeze from the cold air as he replied, /I know but, well, why don't they put the work in? I know that a lot of people think I got my place as a Dragon Fly because of my siblings, so why don't those guys try to take it from me? A lot of them brag that they're a better flier than me anyway./

Storm laughed again, /Because that would be work they don't want to do. Work and extra humiliation for if they fail in a challenge to you. Besides, I think a lot of them are hoping your poor grades would take you off the team./

Peak felt a touch of heat on his face, signaling the beginning of a blush that he ignored to gripe, /My grades aren't that bad and a lot of my teachers are understanding so I can make up the work...usually./

There was an unspoken comment between the two of them regarding the fact that Peak's oddly frequent trips to Medical were what tended to give the teen time to bring his grades up. Going into another wide turn, Wing Storm told him, /You humans are so odd./

Peak snorted, /Like dragons don't get jealous./

Storm snorted back, /That's true but at least we get to the point of it quickly. Challenge your opponent to a duel and win it. What's wrong with that logic?/

/Besides the fact that if I went around doing that, I'd have no time to fly with you like this? Not much. I could use the wind jammer practice, that's for sure./

There was a rumble from both the dragon's chest and abdomen, making Peak actually laugh aloud. Smiling, the teen told Storm, /Alright, let's go back for now. I'm getting hungry too./

Relieving pressure from the saddle bars, Peak sat back in the saddle and let Wing Storm fly them back to the city, trusting his dragon to take them home safely.


	27. Free

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Free

(-)

Iranda yelped as someone suddenly walked into her, making her drop the stack of books she'd been holding. A strong hand grabbed her arm to help her stay standing, as the person quickly began to apologize, "I'm so sorry! It was my fault, I wasn't watching where I was going."

She righted herself and gently pushed away the hand before bending down to pick up the books, replying, "It's alright. I should have checked around the corner first."

Whoever she'd walked into was already kneeling down to help gather up the books as well, an amused voice asking, "Chaucer? I didn't think many people knew of him."

Iranda tried to keep the blush off her face as she said, "I like The Canterbury Tales."

Before she could say more, the person sighed, "Ah yes. Those are quite good and it's a shame the Library only has the one copy."

Iranda finally looked up at the other person, blushing faintly at the sight of the handsome brunet man before her. Making herself speak, she told him, "I asked my supervisor once why that was and she told me it's because the book isn't very popular. There are digital copies in the archives but there's something about a physical copy that's much more substantial."

The man stood and offered her a hand up, "That is true. I'm Aaron by the way."

She accepted his hand, replying as she straightened up to her full height, "Thank you and my name is Iranda."

He smiled at her, his pale blue eyes focused on her own, "Would you happen to be free later? I'd like to make it up to you for the accident."

Her normal reply of 'too much work' was already on the tip of her tongue but Iranda swallowed it and instead told him, "I do get off my shift in half an hour, if you don't mind the wait."

Aaron nodded, "I'll come pick you up then or would you rather meet somewhere?"

She shook her head, "Picking me up from the Library is fine. I'll see you then."

With that, they exchanged goodbyes and went their separate ways. As she walked back to the Library, Iranda wondered why she'd agreed to it. Aaron had been wearing the uniform of a dragonator and why would he be interested in a simple librarian?

Still, it made her happier than she imagined when he really was there at the front desk when her shift ended.


	28. Enjoy

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot and the OC is hers.

Prompt: Enjoy

(-)

Dragonator Squad 2 had just sat down for lunch when Nora made a sharp growl in her throat, "Not again!"

Confused, her three teammates followed her gaze to where they could see Peak by the counter of the diner, either waiting for his own food or searching for someone.

Dram sighed, "He means well Nora and we have talked to him about giving you space."

She snorted, viciously jabbing a fork at her chicken salad, "Good! I don't enjoy the attention and he needs to just leave me alone."

Amod rolled his eyes and started in on his sandwich, not wanting to stir up another rant from Nora regarding Peak and privacy issues. Zarkan, however, took the bullet and asked, "What'd he do this time?"

Nora growled, "He always seems to be doing flight practice when I am and I know for a fact he takes the long way to Storm's stall just to go by my dragon's stall."

Zarkan frowned lightly, but Dram spoke first, "Nora, Wing Storm is on an extra flight schedule right now. He gained more weight than normal while Peak was in Medical last week because some of the apprentice caretakers overfed him."

She blinked in surprise, "Oh, I didn't know that."

Nora growled again, though softer this time, "Oh crap, I think he's coming over here."

The other three turned to watch, Amod and Zarkan for the possible entertainment and Dram so he could gather details for when he spoke with Peak again later. Sure enough the teen had moved closer and was smiling, raising one arm to wave it.

Before any of the four of them could do anything, someone darted by their table to run straight at Peak, launching themselves at him in a hug with an accompanying squeal. He caught the person and gave them a brief hug before setting the other down. The unknown person was then revealed to be a girl about Peak's age.

Nora stared, more than a little startled at both the sight of the girl that had so energetically greeted Peak and the color of the girl's hair. Elbow length, it was a painfully bright green streaked with an equally bright blue and tipped in hot pink. That hair and her clothes marked her as a civilian, which would explain why Nora didn't know her.

Peak said something to the girl, which made her apparently laugh and kiss him on the cheek. He seemed embarrassed but didn't push her away, instead turning to indicate the menu above the counter, suggesting they were meeting for lunch. Something about the situation caused Nora to ask sharply of her teammates, "Who is that?"

For some reason, Amod started to choke on his food, prompting Zarkan to thump his back. From the sounds that he himself was making though, it seemed Zarkan was trying not to laugh. Dram hid a smile and asked Nora, "Are you jealous?"

She stared at the good dramen, "What? No!"

Dram just shook his head and said nothing more, returning his attention to his own food. Nora gave one last glance at the teen pair, growled again and dug into her own food in a manner that suggested it had somehow insulted her.

Dram watched her and decided to let Nora steam for a little. He could always tell her later that that girl was Peak's overly affectionate best friend, Jan.


	29. Shining

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Shining

(-)

Summit groaned as he woke up, swearing at the painfully bright sunlight shining in through his bedroom window.

Rolling over, he dragged his pillow over his head, both to block out the light as well as an attempt to smother his killer headache. Why had he agreed to that drinking bet last night?

Sure, he could out-drink over half the population of the floating city but that didn't mean his body appreciated him doing so, especially on the following morning. Summit took a small consolation at the idea that his opponent's from last night were likely suffering worse but...

His covers were yanked off just as an overly happy and _loud_ voice chirped, "Good morning Summit! C'mon, get up already!"

The older man whimpered and hugged his pillow tighter over his head, curling up into a half ball as he did so. Those men from last night didn't have annoying younger siblings that seemed to delight in tormenting them.


	30. Overflow

**Disclaimer:** TinySprite owns nothing of Dragon Flyz, which is owned by Gaumont Pictures. Only the plot is hers.

Prompt: Overflow

(-)

Z'neth swore as he sent Riptor into another circle, trying to find an opening in the swarms of gremwings and the attacks of the dark dramen.

He couldn't remember how Peak had fallen off of Wing Storm and didn't particularly care at that moment. What he did care about though, was the fact that the low cliff Peak had landed on was dangerously close to the lava river.

The fact that all the fighting was knocking some boulders loose was also worrying, especially since said boulders had been blocking part of the lava. If they came loose, there was a high chance the released lava would overflow the low cliff and they all knew what would happen to a human in that scenario.

And to top it all off, Peak hadn't moved since he'd fallen. It could just be a case that he'd gotten knocked out on impact but at that point, Z'neth's panic was telling him it was the other option.

Apex and Summit tore through the swarms, trying to help make an opening for either Z'neth and Riptor or Wing Storm to get to the youngest Dragon Fly.

Now Black Heart and Dread Wing were in the way and _nonononononono_ the mutant dragon's tail swung and hit the mountain side with enough force to crack it. The shock was the final straw and Z'neth felt a scream leave his throat just as the boulders rocked free.


End file.
